As Seen in Washington News World: StartupPOP Tech Event Helps Sharks Find Serendipity Near South Beach

Spring boarding off their Shark Tank-style success in Fort Lauderdale last month, Founder of StartupPOP™, Dan Gudema and Co-Organizer, Heath Jones announce plans for their inaugural Shark Tank-style startup pitch event to be held near Miami beach.

StartupPOP forged a deal with Serendipity Labs® earlier this week to co-host their fly affair at Serendipity Labs swanky new coworking venue in Aventura. This will be StartupPOP’s 19th event and the two organizers have decided to name this event “The Founder’s Splash”.

Last month Maxeme Tuchman of tech startup Caribu™ pitched at StartupPOP’s event in Fort Lauderdale. Caribu.co provides an application that allows parents to read bedtime stories to their kids when they are far away. Maxeme described their application as ‘Facetime’ meets ‘Kindle’. After StartupPOP’s Fort Lauderdale event Maxeme and her team went on to win HBS New Venture contest!

“It is exciting to see our participants succeed and to know our event may have played a minor role in their success. People enjoy our affairs for their fun style, as well as the pure nature of the startups and audience participants. Our success is due to the community aspect of the attendees, who consist mainly of startups themselves. While we have investors and others who attend, they are really in the minority.” Said Dan Gudema, founder of StartupPOP™.

So what is the big deal about these events?

StartupPOP™ is known for organizing local Shark Tank-style startup pitch events with each event featuring between 6-11 Startups and averaging between 50-90 audience members. Last month’s event was the first held in the Fort Lauderdale area, and received great feedback from local area startups and audience members. Grant Stemler from coworking space General Provision™ helped by co-hosting the event in General Provision’s fun retro-steampunk style coworking space in the art district area of downtown Fort Lauderdale. Although General Provision™ and Serendipity Labs service similar cowork space needs, Serendipity Lab’s facility in Aventura is certain to offer a different venue experience, over that of last month’s General Provision venue. Think Daniel Craig’s “Casino Royal” vs. Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West”. Both movies were exciting and action packed, but their opposing styles of ‘edgy elegant’ vs. ‘edgy retro’ were uniquely different. Serendipity Lab’s venue in Aventura offers that new and prominent elegance.

“This will be our 19th event, but first event held in Aventura. Since this location draws heavily from the Miami area startup ecosystem we expect a much larger turnout. “ Said Heath Jones, co-organizer of StartupPOP™ while talking about their expansion plans. “We’re excited to partner with Henry Dom, co-organizer of coworking space Serendipity Labs®. Their space is elegantly beautiful and this collaboration provides an exciting win-win opportunity. We certainly like that!” He added.

I greatly enjoy attending the StartupPop events and seeing so many innovative ideas from entrepreneurs—the kind of business people who built America.

Ron Poe Secu

A great place to meet, network, exchange ideas.

Geoff Caplan Entrepreneur in Boca Raton

I think people in this location are fortunate to have access to a group like this. Great job Dan.

Beverly Pipes Marketing Consultant, Delray Beach

Definitely worth attending!

S Turner Dean Turbodean, LLC. Business Development Consultants

I attended my first meetup with this group October 15, 2014 where they were hosting a Pitch Event that evening. I have to say congratulations at an event well done. Very professional and extremely well organized.

Alan Boca Raton

Great event, organized well, with good food and intelligent people who were easy to meet and share ideas.

Mark Tennenhouse Software Developer in Boca Raton

Dan’s pitch and networking events thru StartupPOP are a breeding ground for the most promising entrepreneurs and startups in the South Florida region. My company received an amazing press write up in the Sun Sentinel as a direct result of Dan’s influential recommendation after hearing me pitch at his first event.

Erik Mendelson RecordGram CO Founder

The event represented a magnificent growing opportunity for me. The venue was beautiful and the organization was very good. There were plenty of people, food was amazing. The pitches were fast paced, the audience interested and motivated. Investors were there and the panel was very knowledgeable. I learned a lot & talked to people who want to work with me. I'm very happy I got the opportunity to pitch, I would repeat the experience.

Salvi Pascual Apretaste

Dan’s meetup is a great opportunity to validate your next big idea, or hone your marketing message. Nothing beats face to face interaction with an audience of like-minded entrepreneurs, who each bring their own unique perspective.

Mark Chin CEO & Founder w3bstore.com

StartupPOP’s Mission

To build and support the startup community. Startups not only create jobs & opportunities, they help strengthen the backbone of our communities. Created as a way for entrepreneurs, young and old, to get exposure to investors. Investors, angels and VCs count on StartupPOP to find 'diamonds in the rough,' companies that, with the right support could blossom into 'the next big thing.'